Hi again y’all,
Sorry for flooding the community, but I’m currently been trying to find new recipes to work with, and came across one that called for fresh green beans. I have a bag of frozen ones, and am curious as to whether or not I can use the frozen ones I have as a substitute.
In general I was curious that if I were to substitute fresh produce with frozen, if there would be anything I’d need to keep in mind. Would the cooking time differ? Would I need to thaw the frozen produce prior? Is some produce unable to be substituted with frozen equivalents?
Thanks for help in advance.
3 big ones for all cases:
-texture. Frozen stuff tends to go a bit soft or mushy, so if you want crispy/roasted/whatev. It’s going to be at best difficult, sometimes not doable.\- cooking time. If you don’t want to think too much about it, thaw before cooking, otherwise increase the cooking time to some degree. (Depens a lot)\
- watery. Frozen vegs release more water when they defrost, you need to consider that with the rest of the thing you are cooking. Thawing before cooking helps to an extend, but not always.
Also some recipes ars meant to work with frozen ingredients, that takes care of the guesswork.
Well texture is the biggest thing you need to be vary of depending on how you’re cooking it you might need to alter something. Some produce is parboiled before being frozen too. For a soup as you mentioned is perhaps the best place to utilise frozen veggies, the texture isn’t an issue nor fo you ga e to worry about defrosting it first. Just pop it in. Peas for example are basically cooked before being frozen, I’m not sure about asparagus but just check em after they’ve thawed in your soup.
It depends on a veggie/fruit. I don’t have much experience with frozen fruits so I will stay on a veggie side of the question.
So, in order to freeze veggies, usually you would blanche it first. It will reduce the volume. As a rule of thumb one unit of frozen veggies would replace a one to 1.5 unit of fresh ones - depends on a veggie. On top of that frozen veggies could release more water when cooking. Next, frozen veggies need less cooking time.
Few other things to consider:
- frozen veggies are a no go for roasting (they get mushy)
- frozen veggies are perfect for soups or anything boiled (e.g. carrot/corn puree)
- frozen veggies might need more or less seasoning, depending on a freezing process
- in most cases frozen veggies have a worse texture
Less cooking time? Why’s that? I would have assumed the opposite considering they would need time to be brought to the same temp, no?
In most cases frozen veggies are blanched before freezing. Blanching is nothing more like boiling fresh veggies and rapidly cooling them off. The process makes veggies already per-cooked. Another thing to consider is that freezing veggies will break the cells (the magic of water crystals breaking the veggie cells) which makes the veggies softer.
You’ll definitely be able to use them. But the alterations to the recipient will likely depend on the cooking application.
What recipe are you trying to follow?
This specific recipe was a soup, though I’ve definitely wanted to try and use frozen equivalents, namely cauliflower, in other different recipes.
So, in general you can swap 1:1 frozen vegetables for fresh with no problems at all. Fruit gets a little bit more hinky since a lot of them get packaged with syrup to help prevent crystallization (which completely shreds the fruit.). If you’re using the fruit in something- like a jam, or compote where it’s going to get cooked anyway, just be aware that it might need less sugar. you can use it whole you might notice them being a bit more juicy than normal, and a bit… uh… frozen-strawberry-esque? They’re perfectly fine, but they’re going to be a bit… weird. (waffles come to mind. we do frozen strawberries and blueberries, as well as black and raspberries.)
In fact, frozen stuff usually retains more of the nutrients and has more to start with than fresh produce. The reason for this is that the facility they freeze them at are generally next to or very near the farms they’re grown at. So they’re picked when ripe rather than green, and then freezing actually is the best at preserving nutrients.
Vegetables are generally blanched, to deactivate enzymes, though, so they’re already partially cooked. Generally speaking, frozen vegetables need to be cooked from frozen, or thawed in the fridge. Peas are notorious in my family. (Step-grandma thawed peas in the sink for a thanksgiving dinner to… unpleasant consequences.) (If there’s any special considerations, they’ll be listed on the packaging.)
Some vegetables are in fact “meant” to be frozen. like heirloom-varieties of carrots. carrots do this thing as a last-gasp of trying to survive, where the convert their starches into sugars; which increases their ability to survive freezing. (fun fact, this is why humans are so keyed to sweet things- sweetness means it’s in season.)
Before you get any funny ideas about carrots from the grocery store… modern commercial carrots don’t do this; its been bred out as a consequence of breeding for other things (mass production value.) but even so, winter crops generally tolerate freezing very well because… well… they’re winter crops and that’s what they’re good for.
Broccoli and cauliflower are both traditionally winter crops, by the way. as are garlic, leeks, kale, a few varieties of squash parsnips, turnips and beets (which like carrots become sweeter with the cold.)
You’ve probably already made your soup, and I hope you did add the frozen green beans. You can put them right into the boiling liquid, stirring to break up any clumps, and increasing the heat until the soup comes back to a boil before turning it down to simmer. Anything saucy works well with frozen veggies. If you’re going to make a fruit pie, it’s a good idea to use a recipe with specific directions, by adding “using frozen berries” or whatever to your search. But in general, I mix the sugar and cornstarch or other thickener and any spices in a bowl, and if the frozen fruit isn’t all stuck together I add it all at once and stir, then let it sit a few minutes and give it another stir before putting it in the crust. And I have foil ready for the crust edge in case the fruit is slow to cook through.
If the fruit or vegetables are frozen into a big lump, microwave a minute and break them up, but generally you want to use them a little icy.
A lot of people have already commented, but let me add to the masses: soup with frozen veggies can be a total life saver. I was just sick and tossed in basically my whole freezers worth of frozen veggies over the last two weeks. I like to do some meal prep when I’m feeling good and freeze some of my better veggies, but I had bags of corn, squash and sweet potatoes and made chili out of it. Just chucked the whole bag frozen solid into the mix and cooked till it was thawed. I’ve done the same for smoothies when I’ve got some left over bits to use up. But I like green smoothies a lot, so I’m not sure that helps the average cook.
I’d add casseroles work well with some frozen veggies as well, but you have to be weary of the water content. Other than those three, I don’t think I’d use most frozen veggies for anything else. Maybe edamame with stir fry, but I can’t think of any other exception. Too mushy/watery.
